Pleurothallis alpestris (Sw.) Lindl. 1830 SUBGENUS Antilla Luer 2000
Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The High Elevation Pleurothallis
Flower Size .1" [2.5 mm]
Found in Jamaica in montane forests at elevations of 750 to 2600 meters as a miniature sized, warm to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicuals enveloped by a loose, tubular sheath below the middle and 2 shorter ones at the base and carryinga single,a pical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical to elliptical ovate, acute, cuneate below into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the winter through spring on 1 to 2, subtended by a basal spathe, .4 to 2.4" [1 to 6 cm] long, distichous, lax, erect then arched, successivvely several flowered inflorescence with tubular, longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying light yellow, erect flowers with .12 to .16" [3 to 4 mm] between each.
"Closely allied to P laxa but the flowers in P alpestris are .12 to .16" [3 to 4 mm] apart, in P laxa they are .2 to .28" [5 to 7 mm] apart. The ovary of P alpestris is very short about .06" [1.5 mm] long, and it is long papillose becoming fringed on the ribs of the capsule. The ovary of P laxa is .12" [3 mm] long, and is minutely papillose." Luer 2000
Synonyms Acianthera alpestris (Sw.) A.Doucette 2016; Antilla alpestris (Sw.) Luer 2004; Dendrobium alpestre (Sw.) Sw. 1799; *Epidendrum alpestre Sw. 1788; Humboldtia alpestris (Sw.) Kuntze 1891;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Nova Acta Regiae Soc. Sci. Upsal., ser. 2, 6: 84 Swartz 1799 as Dendrobium alpestre ;
* Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl.: 7 Lindley 1830
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 667 Kuntze 1891 as Humboltia alpestris;
Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910;
Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909;
Flore Descriptive des Antilles Francaises H. Stehle 1939;
Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 appendix;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVI Pleurothallis subgenus Acianthera and Three Allied subgenera, A Second Century of new Species of Stelis of Ecuador, Epibator, Ophidion and Zootrophion Luer 2004 as Antilla alpestris;
Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000 drawing fide;
Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014 drawing good;
Phytotaxa 275: 270 Doucette 2016
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